Renewal of lease - increase deposit?

Piliger

Hi,

My close friend has been contacted by her landlord offering a new lease after her one year lease ends in July.

He wants to increase the rent to 550 from 525. Also he implies that he wants to adjust the deposit .... is this normal ? is this allowed ?

Also he wants to visit to inspect the inventory - but the lease has no inventory attached ... ?

Chris_5339762

He is allowed to visit at a mutually convenient time to inspect his property, but as far as I know he cannot 'adjust' the deposit when the rent goes up.

xper

There is no reason that a new fixed term lease couldn't have different conditions such as a different deposit amount as well as a different monthly rent and other ne conditions as it is a completely new contract. However, your friend would equally be within her rights to continue her tenancy as a Part 4 tenancy without signing a new lease and the current deposit amount could not be adjusted. the landlord is within his rights to change the monthly rent, in line with local market rates, once the fixed term period is up and twelve month have passed since the last rent amount was set.

djimi

While increasing the deposit would be an unusual enough request, it's possible that at some point in the past the landlord has been burned by a tenant who tried to use their deposit as the last months rent, so it's understandable that they are trying to cover themselves in case this were to happen again. I'm not aware of any obligation on the tenant however to agree to this, so if your friend doesn't like it they can simply refuse and see what happens. Might be worth a quick phone call to Threshold however to run it by them and see what they reckon.

miezekatze

Lots of people got rent reductions when rents went down a few years ago - I don't think anyone got part of their deposit back when their rent was reduced. I think that's a bit strange, and I've never heard of anyone having to add to their deposit when their rent was increased.

He has a right to inspect the property if he gives advance notice.

StillWaters

It seems reasonable enough, it would keep things clean as dijomi said in case there was an issue with the last months rent. I think the rent increase of 5% is reasonable. If I were her and I wanted to stay there, I would just hand over the €25 to top up the deposit to keep it in line.

Piliger

Many thanks y'all for that advice.

I want her to stand up for her rights ..... but I have to accept that she is vulnerable. She cannot find any similar flat for that price in the area she must live for her job ... and she is scared stiff of retaliation of some kind by the landlord.
She already has awful damp in the winter and a tenant who shares the building, a 3 bed bungalow (separate apartments) who apparently is some kind of representative of the landlord who refused to allow her to use the parking space in front, though it says it clearly on her lease, and who has held copies of her keys and entered her apartment several times when she was out.
if there were other places locally I would urge her to act - but I guess it's just bad luck

djimi

She really needs to find herself a new place to live so, and also consider taking a case against the landlord both for breach of lease (in denying the parking space) and also for letting himself/his agent into the house unannounced.

Whatever she does, tell her not to sign a new lease; the last thing she wants is to be tied to this property in case something better comes up that she wishes to take.

D3PO

djimi wrote: »

She really needs to find herself a new place to live so, and also consider taking a case against the landlord both for breach of lease (in denying the parking space) and also for letting himself/his agent into the house unannounced.

.

The landlord hasn't prevented her using the parking space or entered her house.

Sounds like some kind of "head tenant" has been taking the piss. Bring it up with the landlord but you cant take a case against him, without first allowing him or her the opportunity to rectify the problem.

That said OP tell her to get the hell out of there and rent somewhere else.

djimi

I took representative of the landlord to mean agent, but youre right; it could just mean a head tenant. Either way, if this person is in any way officially appointed by the landlord then the landlord has himself a problem that needs sorting.

Piliger

Yes guys ... all good comments. It just illustrates the problems that low paid people have with poorly behaving landlords. It's all well and good having rights but the cost of exercising them is another thing.

I will keep helping her to find another place but her part of north west dublin seems empty of places for that price. In the meantime I will help her try to avoid signing another lease but agree to the increase.